Detection of chemical contaminants

Abstract

2. DETECTION OF CHEMICAL CONTAMINANTS 2.1. Chemical Warfare Agents (CWA) 2.1.1. The History of Chemical Warfare (CW) Chemical warfare can be defined in various ways for the purposes of historical review, but primarily as the use of the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. In western literature the first mention of CW is in Greek mythology, in which Hercules was said to have poisoned his arrows with the venom of a Hydra. In The Iliad, Homer claimed that in the Trojan War, both sides used poisoned arrows. There are also many other documented uses of early CW from ancient times. The timeline below shows not only recorded uses of chemical warfare, but also the attempts to ban it. 600 BC-The Athenian military taints the water supply of the besieged city of Kirrha with poisonous hellebore plants. 479 BC-Peloponnesian forces use sulphur fumes against the town of Plataea. 1845-During the French conquest of Algeria, French troops force more than 1,000 members of a Berber tribe into a cave and then use smoke to kill them. 1914, August-During the first month of World War I the French deploy tear-gas grenades, first developed in 1912 for police use. 1914, October-German forces fire 3,000 shells containing dianisidine chlorosulfate, a lung irritant, at the British army at Neuve-Chapelle. The British are unaware that they have been subjected to a chemical attack because the chemical is incinerated by the explosive charge. 1915, January-The Germans fire 18,000 shells filled with the irritant xylyl bromide at Russian troops at Bolinow. The Russians are unharmed because the extreme cold keeps the liquid from vaporizing. 1915, April 22-The German military launches the first large-scale use of chemical weapons in war at Ypres, Belgium. Nearly 170 metric tons of chlorine